Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica - How was your week?

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Two day off in Antigua are well spent drinking with the locals to celebrate Independence Day. Did you know.... Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and Panama all share the same Independence Day 15 September 1821. This was only from the Spanish though, they then had to get independent from the Mexicans as well. We sampled the local delight of Aguadiente (picture on the Globebusters blog with new Colombian face hair!) which is US $1 a bottle. We had US $8 worth and its 36% proof - Then on to the obligatory Irish bar, O'Reilly's run by a Norwegian. This was bettered on our last night when Max had a hankering for a Curry and we at at the Pashkoor, and very good it was too. Waiters were Guatemalan and the white chef was from Suffolk - Of course.

The following day is another border day and we are already saying goodbye to Guatemala. Honduras beckons. 140 miles to the border through Guatemala City is a bit like the Wacky Races Cartoon. One faller who clips (is clipped by?) a Volvo at low speed but all through hair raisingly in one piece. The border is surprisingly easy as in the last two years the Central American countries have got together and agreed a new almost computerised standard. After 2-3 hours we are away and have only 10 miles through windy, hilly very English looking countryside to Copan and Howard s place. As we are early in to town we explore and discover Twisted Tanya's a backpackers / cocktail bar. We arrive at 4pm and leave at 10pm. Salty Dog any-one?

The Copan Ruins and the southern tip of the Mayan empire and we have the day off again to explore. All very fascinating although our guide is not as good as at Pallenque. We learn about the Mayan Ball court where captives were made to play a macabre game of basketball with the head of another captive. The losers all got executed (presumably to provide new heads) and the winners got 7 days of luxury, food, wine, virgins etc and then got executed. Very reasonable. From hear we ride across Honduras in a big 360 miles day which includes 40 miles of very rough jarring rock road that we all negotiate and survive in one piece. The country remains very English except that the houses are really shacks and the people are much more friendly. As we ride south east we need to cross Tegucigalpa the Honduran capital. Well if the last one was the Wacky Races this is Deathrace 2000 (Video game for those that don't know) On a hill up we have two lanes and the oncoming traffic has one. Except round the bend comes a bus overtaking a lorry down hill in the middle (our!) lane!! If this happen once it would be disturbing, however this is the norm. The rules are if there is space for my vehicle, and my vehicle is bigger than yours then get out of my way. At one point we see a 45 ton Truck lying on it side in a house at the bottom of a hill. He has failed to make the left hand bend and slid off the road taking what looks like a reasonable house with him. We just hope they were out.... This complete the things in ditch collectors game as earlier in the day we came across a bus in a ditch as well which had happened only that morning! Our American cousins and some of the more law abiding of the group are finding it liberating to finally ride only with regard to safety and not the law.

Ours stopping point is Danli tonight which is a town that exists to serve the border. Think of any port / airport town and you'll get the picture. Enough said. However today we also clocked up 10,000 miles for the trip so far, and will clock up 20,000 miles on Big Heffy in the next few days. The next morning arrive at the Honduran border post exit at 8.10am, as it opens at 8am. Although as this is Latin America it actually opens about 8.20am. Relax its Latin time. The borer crossing involves the usual formalities of queueing at little ramshackle offices, to check us out then the bike out and then moving up to check us in and the bike into Nicaragua This all occurs with the money changers “Cambio Cambio” the shoe shine boys, one or two beggars and the ice cream man with a push hand cart with a cool box built on, all trying to extract a few Quetzels, Pesos, Colonies or dollares from you. A couple of guys with black boots have a shoe shine ($1) and it takes two lads 20 minutes but the boots are better than new (think they paid them $5!) Mac as usual ends up buying ice creams for all the kids.

The whole process takes 3 hours and we are fortunate that it is a little overcast at times so the heat is not too bad. We ride off though the very lush Nicaragua and it feels like the poorest country so far. Guatemala supposedly holds this title but there the people seem happier and living more traditional farming lifestyles. This feels more like a country that is trying to become western without the economy to do it. We are riding to Granada an old colonial town where we are staying on the plaza. However we have been warned about Nicaragua. Firstly the Police are properly corrupt and secondly do not wander more than four blocks of the plaza in Granada, and definitely do not wander into the Barrios (Slums) as you won't come back in one piece. One item turns out to b prophetic and we avoid testing the second. Riding along a nice road we are flagged down by the Police. 70 says the radar gun. Bearing in mind this is kilometres I am amazed it is so low. Of course its not me its the standard reading. It turns out that this stretch is a 50kmh limit! Licence please? You will need to take the ticket to Managua to pay and get your licence back! Can't we pay in Granada? No has to be Managua. Ummm Can't we pay here? Looks are exchanged between talking cop and boss cop... $40. Forty Cordoba's no problem. No No No talking cop says forty dollares... We haggled to $20 for which I get my licence back and no receipt.

Granada is a run down colonial city and again feels poor and desperate. Prostitutes wander the square giving the gringos obvious come on's. There minder has a T shirt on with a luminous orange arrow point left. He stands on their right.... There are street sellers market stalls, men wandering around with hands full of watches and jewellery and the desperation fills the air. We wander within the 4 block safety zone and find a John Lennon themed restaurant where the owner and chef claims to make everything himself from produce in his farm garden. The only thing that belies this is that has has two broken hands from a push bike race and so his one waiter actually does the work. Turns out to be very expensive for Central America but surprisingly good. We did change the never ending Beatles soundtrack off though and swapped it for something less depressing.

Our ride through Nicaragua takes us to the Pacific Coast and San Juan De La Suer. Its a surfer dude location and we stay one road from the huge beach. Reminiscent of St Brealdes in size and shape except for the beach bars on stilts, the huge waves, the statue of Christ over looking the bay and the most incredible sunset. We swim in the afternoon on the surf and are back in a beach bar for 5.15 to spend an hour watching the sun set over the pacific. Truly magical experience. The clouds shimmer from red to purple and the sun glints off the crashing sea. And that was Nicaragua short and sweet and tomorrow is another border day. This can be the worst border of them all says Kevin. He is dead right....

Arriving at 8am the border is a huge muddy, tarmacked compound. Scattered around it are buildings solid and derelict of which some of each are in use. There are at least 1000 trucks queueing to get in and parked around the compound. The “process” works like this: 1) Pay $1 to get in the compound. 2) Get form and complete it 3) Hand in all temporary bike imports licences and get the bikes stamped out ($3) 4) Move bikes to new area and get them sprayed down the decontamination wash ($4) 5) get another form and complete 6) Queue to get ourselves stamped out of Nicaragua including handing in form 7) Get identical form for Costa Rica 8) Move Bikes to Costa Rican Building 9) Queue to get stamped into Costa Rica 10) Queue to buy Costa Rican Insurance for Bike ($15) 11) Get this copied, plus passport, driving licence, and log book (50 cordobas) 12) Walk across road and jump queue at vehicle inspection office and get another form 13) Complete this form and join queue to hand for in and get vehicle inspected 14) Cursory inspection of vehicle - eg reg number matches and get given tiny slip of paper stamped and signed and with you reg on it - If you lose this it is $100 fine and start again. 15) Move bikes to vehicle permit office as everything so far is just to preparation 16) Find office burnt down two months ago and they are using a bus as the office instead. 17) Truck drives through compound catches power cable and blacks out all offices, computers, cafe etc etc. 18) Have lunch as there is nothing else to do - They can't issue the permits without power. 19) With a generator now running the bus Kevin and Jeff stand at the front of the growing queue of truckers, which when they realise Kevin has a stack of document nots just one almost turns into a riot. 20) Stand next to Kevin and look menacing 21) Get first three documents back 45 minutes after generator is hooked up 22) hand two of these back as they are wrong and if they have wrong details when leaving the country they will fine you. 23) After 6.5 hours ride out and get stopped twice by police in 25 miles to check that we have all our documents. However Kevin and Jeff are then another hour and a half as when Jeff left the country in 2007 the authorities did not enter his bike as leaving the country properly. They now thing he sold it in country to avoid tax and won't let him in! The resolution is to get a letter from a lawyer (based in the compound) for $24 to say he didn't and then to bribe the fat controller $50. Total time elapsed 8 hours. We arrive at Playa Hermosa back on the Pacific all of 75 miles from where we started the day for mid afternoon!

Costa Rica is totally different. MacDonarlds, Burger King, Avis Car Hire, Road Signs, No potholes, oh dear the Americans have been here and it shows. However Playa Hermosa is on the volcanic sand beach and more ocean swimming beckons.....

A footnote: We seem to be running the gauntlet of timing on this trip. Two weeks after we rode the Dalton Highway in Alaska there was a snow storm and Prudhoe and the Atican pass are both impassable for 10 days. After we left Guatemala, due to the number of drive by shootings from motorcycles the government banned pillions on motorcycles with the penalty of prison or a $3500 fine. Two days after we left Honduras the former President finally sneaked back into the country following the recent coup and hid in the Brazilian Embassy, so the Military have re-imposed a national curfew and restrictions on movement! So far our timings have been impeccable

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Photos

Copan Ruins
The ball court where captives played for the right to be executed

Nicaragua
Another fine local road....

Granada
The road is a thing to be shared in Latin America, with every-one....

Playa Hermosa
Sunset over the Pacific